Composer’s fundraising campaign

A graduate has launched an online fundraising campaign for an album of orchestral music inspired by the Rosetta space mission, which successfully landed a probe on a comet.

Edward Blakeley, who left the University of Leeds’ School of Music with a first-class degree in Popular and World Musics in 2012, is using crowd-funding platform Kickstarter in an initial bid to raise £2,500.

The money would provide up-front costs to record the music as an album, titled

Edward, 25, who grew up in Hastings but now lives in Bexhill, said: “The Rosetta success was so inspiring and emotional, especially for a science fan like myself. I felt I wanted to celebrate this amazing human achievement. Inspiration can come from the strangest of places – in my case, science provided it.”

His project has now been highlighted by the European Space Agency, which last month guided Philae, Rosetta’s lander module, onto comet 67P after it had travelled 6.4 billion kilometres over 10 years.

His work alongside award-winning film music composer Richard Jacques helped pave the way for his

Written as a suite of orchestral movements the music will follow the journey of the Rosetta mission from its rocket launch to the landing of the Philae probe on the surface of the comet.

Backers pledging funds via the Kickstarter site will receive a copy of the music, as well as a 3D printed miniature of the Philae lander. A sample of the music is playable from the same page.

Edward plans to spend the next six months completing the work. He said: “If you’re a fan of works like

The young composer will be funding the writing, production and mixing himself.